Schools debate: Gifted and talented, or racist and elitist?

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4 thoughts on “Schools debate: Gifted and talented, or racist and elitist?

  1. This is truly a hornet’s nest. But to open dialogue and determine an inclusive and positive way to address all students’ needs is key. No, not every child is gifted. But every child deserves to be educated and the focus should be to lift up rather than continuously drop expectations to the lowest common denominator.

    Also, parents are a key part of the educational process. Unfortunately, some parents expect schools to do all and many of these parents lack the background, understanding, and skills to proactively support their children in learning. These issues may be disproportionately represented in certain income and socioeconomic groups.

    However, abolishing so-called gifted programs without a plan to ensure quality learning opportunities in city schools seems both reactive and ultimately negative. Parents will then seek private schooling absent a comprehensive program to ensure quality education is available at every school. So far, that has not occurred.

    Shortridge High School was once a high-performance academic learning facility. Admittance was based on test scores. But more than a few in the surrounding neighborhood complained about the unfair admittance policy and that students who lived nearby must attend a distant high school. Yet many who attended Shortridge came from all corners of the IPS district.

    A key reason for flight — not just white but everyone — is to find a community with sound educational institutions. Indianapolis needs to focus on quality education; learning, understanding, comprehensive, speaking, etc. are tantamount to preparing students for the future, be it work, internships, community college, specialized training or university. New buildings and equipment is of course great, but without solid schools and sound teaching and support from parents for learning, decorum, and behaviour the city system will remain unattractive. Schools can vary per function and objective and a diverse student body can be realized. But solid basic education with high standards must begin pre-K for all students and in all schools.

  2. A realistic education policy would embrace the fact that there are real and measurable differences in ability both within and between different groups and place students accordingly, and also recognize the role parents and the students themselves play in academic achievement rather than blaming educational programming. Instead we have this insane idea that eliminating inconvenient facts and metrics will make reality go away. The dumbing down of society that has been working its way through the workforce and higher ed admissions has now found its way into elementary and secondary education. Leveling society downward never has worked and never will.

  3. “We believe every child is a gifted child, every child is a talented child”.

    I’m sorry, this just is not true in an academic sense. There is such a thing as intellectual capability, and it isn’t equally distributed through the population. More bluntly, not everyone is capable of understanding everything.

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